International Children’s Bible Review

My answer typically depends on the child’s age and how long the families have been attending church but I typically land on one of two recommendations:

An NIrV – recommended because of the reading age

Or The Jesus Storybook Bible

But there’s a new Bible in town and it is certainly worth considering.

The International Children’s Bible is a new translation from Thomas Nelson Publishers. You read that correctly, it’s a translation – from the originally languages – not a paraphrase or storybook.

In addition to the goal of creating an accurate translation, the ICB team wanted to make it simple to read and understand – as you read you’ll see simple, uncomplicated sentences with easy to understand word choices. Every once in a while, you’ll see a word in bold which means you can find the definition of that word in the back of your Bible.

Of course, with simplification can come discrepancies. The ICB team chose to use modern equivalence for measurements, places and the like. So the discrepancies are only when you compare the ICB to another translation – the meaning is still the same.

In places where clarification would cause inaccuracy, the ICB includes footnotes to help the reader understand the ancient custom, place, or language.